While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) prepares to issue a pronouncement Wednesday that is expected to endorse an industry consensus for adjustments to the current natural gas and power price reporting function, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is considering adding a provision to the energy bill that would regulate price publishers under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to Senate sources.

The proposed Senate measure, which the sources said is backed by Apache Corp. and the Coalition for Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (EMIT), would make “disseminators” of natural gas and power prices CFTC jurisdictional, subject to rules and regulations created by that agency. It would require price reports to and by publishers such as Platts and NGI to prove they are accurate and truthful with verifiable data held for five years and available to the CFTC or Justice Department.

“Such a provision would be unconstitutional and would likely be challenged by every journalistic organization in the country which would have a stake in the federal government’s ability to subjugate and regulate a free press,” Ellen Beswick, NGI editor and publisher, said.

The proposed addition to the Senate version of the energy bill comes after FERC, following on an extensive review of industry practices and proposals, recently recommended improvements to the current process, at least for the short term to get through the winter. Chairman Pat Wood urged industry to “get back in reporting business so we get more of the volumes that are actually being transacted reported to existing price collectors” (see Daily GPI, June 26). The Commission also promised to explore issuing a safe harbor provision covering innocent mistakes.

The Senate version of the energy bill (S. 14) is slated to return to the Senate floor next week with a view to completing action before the August recess. Any bill passed by the Senate would have to be reconciled with the House version, which does not contain a CFTC regulation provision similar to that currently being debated behind the scenes in the Senate. There are a number of controversial provisions in both versions, which could result in failure by the Congress to pass a comprehensive energy bill. It is possible that what would emerge from the Congress would be separate measures dealing with less controversial items.

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